Algiers afternoon · Tipasa: Parc archaéologique ouest

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Algiers

   Algiers climbs a hillside above the Mediterranean in a white amphitheatre, which is why it is called Algiers the White. The old quarter, the Casbah, is a maze of narrow lanes, stairways and blind alleys that drop steeply toward the sea, with houses leaning over the paths so closely that the sunlight hardly reaches the ground. UNESCO listed it in 1992 as an example of a North African Islamic city, with an Ottoman citadel, old mosques and palaces. Many of the buildings are in bad repair, and there is a long-running effort to save them, but the life of the quarter goes on, with children playing football in the lanes and cats on every wall.

   Read the complete Algiers write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Algiers is where the day begins. Next is Mausoleum Kbor er Roumia.

2. 2. Mausoleum Kbor er Roumia

   On a low hill west of Algiers, above the farmland of the Mitidja plain and within sight of the sea, stands a great round tomb of pale stone that the French called the Tombeau de la Chrétienne and the Algerians call Kbor er Roumia, the tomb of the Christian woman. The name is a folk memory rather than a fact, since the monument was built in the first century BC for the Berber king Juba II of Mauretania and his wife Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Mark Antony and Cleopatra of Egypt. A royal couple with that parentage, ruling a Roman client kingdom from the coast of Africa, is a story that sounds invented but is simply true.

   Read the complete Mausoleum Kbor er Roumia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Mausoleum Kbor er Roumia comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tipasa: Parc archaéologique est.

3. 3. Tipasa: Parc archaéologique est

   Albert Camus came to Tipasa as a young man and wrote about it in an essay called Nuptials at Tipasa, which describes the wild thyme, the sun on the ruins and the sea as a kind of marriage between a person and the world. He wrote that in spring, Tipasa is inhabited by the gods and the gods speak in the sun and the scent of absinthe plants. Anyone who has walked here on a bright day in April will know what he meant. The ruins lie scattered along the shore between pine trees and the water, with the great mass of the Chenoua mountain behind.

   Read the complete Tipasa: Parc archaéologique est write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Tipasa: Parc archaéologique est. Next is Tipasa: Parc archaéologique ouest.

4. 4. Tipasa: Parc archaéologique ouest

   Tipasa is the kind of ruin that gives you the sea in one direction and the mountain in the other. A Phoenician trading post on this stretch of the Algerian coast became a Roman colony in the first century, and by the later empire it was a prosperous town with a harbour, a forum, villas and, when the city turned Christian, several large basilicas. The remains spread along a rocky shore, among pines, wild fennel and cactus, with the dark mass of the Chenoua mountain rising behind. In the western park you walk among foundations, mosaics and column stumps with the surf rolling in beside you.

   Read the complete Tipasa: Parc archaéologique ouest write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Tipasa: Parc archaéologique ouest, about halfway. Next is back through Tipasa: Parc archaéologique est.

5. 5. back through Tipasa: Parc archaéologique est

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Tipasa: Parc archaéologique est write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Tipasa: Parc archaéologique est sits at 107 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mausoleum Kbor er Roumia.

6. 6. back through Mausoleum Kbor er Roumia

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mausoleum Kbor er Roumia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Mausoleum Kbor er Roumia comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Algiers.

7. 7. Algiers

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Algiers write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Algiers closes the day.